Lake Bluff tentatively approves budget increase

Dan Waters, Tribune reporter

Lake Bluff trustees gave preliminary approval last week to a $13.5 million budget, an increase of 4.4 percent from this year, saying they expect to see a small bump in revenue from sales taxes, property taxes and building permits.

But with expenditures expected to exceed revenues, the village will need to use $1.3 million from other funds to make up the difference, officials said.

"An uneasy economic climate continues to be the most dominating impact of the development of this fiscal plan, as well as the impact of the municipal allocation of state shared revenues, due to concern about the state's fiscal situation," said Village President Kathleen O'Hara, reading from a prepared statement at the meeting.

While Finance Director Susan Griffin said the village took a big hit on the revenue front after the 2008 recession, things are slowly starting to trend in a positive direction, and officials are holding out hope that the recovery will be jump-started in the years to come.

A proposed Target development at the site of the former Shepard Chevrolet dealership is the main source of the optimism, Griffin said.

While she didn't expect Target or additional retailers at the location to start generating income for the village until 2016, she said the village could see a big jump in building permit revenue.

Officials said that number is expected to rise by 80 percent next year, to $775,000. And while sales taxes are expected to stay fairly stable at $2.7 million in the coming budget period, prospects are good for 2016 and beyond, Griffin said.

The $13.5 million amount includes the budget of the Lake Bluff Public Library; even though the library is its own entity, the village collects taxes on its behalf. The village's portion of that number — $12.6 million — is 5.3 percent higher than last year, officials said.

In all, expenditures are expected to exceed revenues by about $1.3 million, despite a nearly 2 percent increase in village property taxes, according to village figures.

The amount will be made up for through inter-fund transfers, Griffin said.

The transfer — of which nearly all will come from the general fund — will primarily go toward vehicle replacement and infrastructure repairs, village documents show.

Other big expenditures on the horizon include the possible $217,000 cost to outsource dispatch services to Glenview, conversion of water meters to an automatic system and storm and sanitary sewer work.

If the outsourcing of dispatch services comes to fruition, it would result in the reduction of three full-time employees, village documents show.

Since 2008, the village has gone from 50 staff members to 38, Griffin said.

While the overall infrastructure investment — anticipated to be about $2.3 million this year — is down from last year, Griffin said a 60 percent decrease in grant money is partially to blame.

Griffin said the last few fiscal years for Lake Bluff have tough as the town continues its "erratic, slow, protracted recovery" from the recession.

She said the village is trying to stay cautious, despite a general fund surplus that far exceeded the village's goal of 30 percent of its operating budget.

A first reading of the budget passed unanimously on March 10. The board is expected to formally approve the document at its April 14 meeting.